Part of the Global Plot to Expose Moonbats, conspiracy nuts, and anti-Semites, especially the Jewish anti-Semitic variety.
The leftwing Neo-Nazi web magazine Counterpunch has described Plaut thus: "One of the most pernicious writers is Steven Plaut, a man who could be thought of as Israel's Daniel Pipes."

Friday, December 22, 2006

1. On-campus anti-Israel indoctrination has entered a new phase at TelAviv University. On Jan 8 the Law School at TAU will be conducting aconference dedicated to the proposition that jailed Arab murderers andterrorists who have perpetrated mass atrocities against Jewish civiliansare "political prisoners". Co-sponsored by the Law School, the "MinervaCenter" (a far-leftist group pretending to be a human rights watchdog),and "Adalah", a radical Arab NGO, the conference is titled "SecurityPrisoners or Political Prisoners?" and the answer that the conference willgive to that question is obvious from the roster of speakers. It includesultra-leftist and anti-Israel extremist Anat Matar (arrested a few monthsago for violently assaulting policeprotecting Israel's security wall), Avigdor Feldman, and other leftists.They will be arguing that the best way to improve Israeli security is toput hundreds of murderers and terrorists back on the streets.

Neturei Karta is a small sect of ultra-Orthodox "Jewish" extremists, bestknown for marching arm in arm with Yasir Arafat and endorsing everyanti-Israel terrorist and anti-Semite on the planet as part of its jihadagainstIsrael. Neturei Karta is a small sect of ultra-Orthodox "Jewish"extremists, bestknown for marching arm in arm with Yasir Arafat and endorsing everyanti-Israel terrorist and anti-Semite on the planet as part of its jihadagainstIsrael.

Neturei Karta (?Guardians of the City? in Aramaic) was created in1938, mainly by Hungarian Jews, as a breakaway group from the moremainstream Agudath Israel movement.

The organization openly calls for Israel to be destroyed and openlysupports theworst genocidal anti-Semites on the planet.

Recently, in response to one of my columns, I received a series of e-mails from someone associated with the Neturei Karta movement. He and Icarried on a correspondence of sorts for quite a while. Below I have takentheessence of the notes I sent him and compiled them into an "open letter."

Dear Sir,

In the Amida prayer, which Jews recite three times every day, there is asection in which the minim are denounced. The minim were small groups oftreasonous Jews who collaborated with the Roman enemies of the Jewishpeople, and the prayer explicitly mentions that these minim were tattlers,snitches, people who served the anti-Semites of their day as agents, andworkedagainst Jewish existence and survival. Since then, of course, the segmentin thedaily prayer has been understood to be a curse in general uponanti-Semites,and especially Jewish anti-Semites working against their own people.

I mention all this because I can think of no more apt illustration of acult of minim than Neturei Karta. Your cult is nothing more than apseudo-Jewish pagan group working against Judaism and in collaborationwiththe worst enemies of the Jews. You would have no problems serving theRomans or Assyrians if they were still around.

You claim that you are simply opposed to Israel because it is full ofpeople who trample upon Jewish observance. Well, let me tell yousomething.The most secularist pork-eater on any kibbutz in Israel is halachicallymoreJewish than the "rabbis" in the Neturei Karta cult. Why do I say this?Because,as you know, there is a clear halachic rule that says that living in theLand ofIsrael is equivalent to observing all 613 religious commandments ormitzvot.All of them ? even the ones reserved for priests and even the ones thatmayonly be performed in the Temple (and so may not be performed today).

No, I am not suggesting that living in Eretz Yisrael should be regardedas a blanket exemption from the observance of all other Jewish religiousprecepts. I am simply saying that even someone who observes nothing atall,but who lives in Israel, is on a very real level more Jewish than the"rabbis" ofyour minim cult.

When you march in anti-Israel demonstrations alongside anti-Semites,when you endorse Arafat and his stormtroopers and serve as their publicrelations agents, when you support terrorists and excuse mass murders ofJews,you are acting as followers of the evil Bil'am, not as sons of Jacob ordisciplesof Abraham.

You say you want Israel destroyed because it was not set up properly,because the Messiah has not yet come. Do you really think that Israel canbedestroyed without there also transpiring a second Holocaust? Do you notrealize this is the unavoidable consequence of what you are proposing, andwhat the people you are supporting seek?

A ketuba, or marriage contract, that is signed on the Sabbath is still avalid one and must be respected, even though signing it on the Sabbath isaviolation of the day. A kohen who marries a divorcee has sinned, becausesucha marriage is prohibited by the Torah, but the marriage must beacknowledgedand even accepted and honored. It stands.

Whether or not Israel was created properly or at the correct time, thefact that it exists changes how Jews must behave and requires a certainamountof responsibility and arvut ze l'ze, or mutual support and defense, evenfrom themost smug, self-righteous pretenders at ultra-religiosity.

Whatever you think about the establishment of Israel, you have no rightto endorse those who seek to destroy it and its Jewish population throughviolence. And if you do endorse such people and march with them, you arecollaborators with Haman. You are worse than Dotan and Aviram.

Had you lived in Shushan in Persia in the days of Queen Esther and herUncle Mordecai, you would have been marching arm in arm with Haman. Afterall, among those Persian Jews were no doubt many who violated the Sabbathand other religious principles. Neturei Karta would have supported Hamanas away to "punish" them.

In Elijah's generation, all but a handful of Jews were acting as pagans.Strange, but I do not recall Elijah justifying anti-Semites murderingthem.Indeed, Elijah enthusiastically endorsed the very worst pagan of all, KingAhab, when the king went on the warpath to kill the enemies of Israel.

The Neturei Karta "rabbis" are not recognized as Torah authorities byreal Torah authorities outside the cult ? not by Sephardic rabbis, not byAshkenazic rabbis, not by misnagdim, not by chassidim. In essence,virtuallyall Jews see Neturei Karta as a pathetic minim cult. Can you name a singlerabbi outside Neturei Karta who endorses the view of your own "rabbis"? Ofcourse you can?t.

So you think collaborating with the worst anti-Semites on the planet,people who openly endorse genocide of Jews, is better than collaboratingwithmisguided Israeli secularists, people who perhaps need to be pulled backto thetraditions of Israel? You believe that when a Jew sins, he ceases to be aJewand should be murdered? I wonder what books you are reading asreplacementsfor the Torah.

You insist the Zionists are the Devil, not the Palestinian terrorists. Andof course, if the Palestinian terrorists are not the Devil, why shouldanyonethink the German Nazis were? Since you defend the Palestinians? right tomurder my family ? and, as it happens, my family does not eat pork ? thenwhat is wrong with the Germans murdering my grandparents?

In the interest of consistency, why not march around in your pro-PLOparades wearing swastikas? Why not put one on your website?

The Neturei Karta cultists are inverted Bil'ams. Bil'am was ordered tocurse Israel, yet ended up blessing the Tents of Jacob. You are thereverse. Youare ordered by the Torah to bless Israel, but you curse the Jewish people.Youhave no concept of Jewish solidarity because you are, at best, apseudo-Jewishminim cult.

3. (taken from various news sources:)Holocaust denier David Irving won an appeal against his imprisonment inAustria.A Vienna court on Wednesday found in favor of an appeal filed by theBritish historian, who was arrested during a November 2005 visit toAustria and sentenced to three years in prison for denying that NaziGermany had carried out an organized genocide against European Jewry.

The court agreed to reduce Irving's sentence and admonished him to leaveAustria at the earliest opportunity.

Holocaust denial is a crime in Austria, Hitler's birthplace, andprosecutors had wanted Irving's prison term extended.

The judge, Ernest Maurer, who freed Irving reportedly has close tiesto a far-right Austrian party. Had Maurer heard the ORIGINAL Irvingsuit against Lipstadt, he would have found for Irving. Hmmm, where havewe heard before of a neo-nazi judge openly identifying with and sidingwith someone who promotes Holocaust Denial?

Denying the Holocaust is a crime in Austria, as well as in a otherEuropean countries such as Germany and Switzerland, and is punishable byup to 10 years in prison. Austria's Jewish community called the verdict a"misjudgement," adding thatIrving's record was far from spotless. On the contrary, Irving was aprominent "icon of the neo-Nazi scene," the community said in a pressrelease.

Efraim Zuroff, the head of Jerusalem's Simon Wiesenthal Centre which huntsdown Nazi war criminals, said the court's decision would "only encourageand strengthen the Holocaust deniers throughout the world".